After being instructed that we should have our communications archived and in a more public domain, I will be working over the next week to transfer our communications from the facebook group to a new tab on this web page.

I will create a new blog post for each week's communications up to and including the current week, and will be encouraging the other members to post any updates they have on this new page.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Today's is a big update! Our game is coming along nicely and nearly finished. We have some heavy texturing to do, some sound changes, and polish - but we're nearly there. We presented an early version of our final sell presentation today, along with our newest build. We got great feedback and positive input, and it felt really great to finally hear that our product is become impressive.

Here's the notes I took today on both our sell presentation and our game demo.

Sell feedback (The number corresponds with the slide number)2. Make the 'imagine' parts pop up one at a time3. after 'you hear noise', jump to 'now you're on a spaceship'. Not straight to Game Start screen.4. After 'on a ship', then game screen.5. ??6. Blend art and story here, don't separate. Incorporate screenshots. This goes for other slides too7. Intended audience is good, just put intended rating as well8. Introduce character > story > what player doing > intended audience (in that order)9. Don't list individually. Maybe ditch slide. As we put images, we can mention some of these things. Demonstrate these, don't list. Video?10. Include this on the story11. Include this after story? Gameplay slide? Can go into small detail as to how the creature is finding you (heatmap)12. Great slide. Maybe get scale, get better pose of Henry. However, this is a little deceptive to in game - creature seems smaller in game than this screen. Reared up pose in game to demonstrate size and fear?13. don't break this out. concept art is great, try to get matching screen shot. This doesn't need its own slide, should be in gameplay explanation14. This screen shot could go with story. don't title 'Demo Scenario'15. good, same as above16. this shouldnt be seperate slide. incorporate these slides throughout17. get updated gun model. ditch concept art. this goes with gameplay, doesn't need its own slide. Have gun pictured with energy pickups, show they work together.18. have gameplay demo, then Question?

- Less lists and back and forth- Video right before game screen? Want to give them sense of fear before game screen.- Too much back and forth between story and gameplay, have it flow better.- If we show Henry, needs better poses and look.- Introduce Henry before explicit story. explain why he's the only one. show game screen, then talk about Genry and why he's only one there
Demo- Audio/visual clue when pickup ammo- More monster audio- Make generator spin, turn on lights? make it more obvious that its now on. give more payoff, a clue as to what's next? cliffhanger!- Footsteps frequency needs to be upped- More scares! valves and pipes bursting? lights that were on turning off?

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

After a few rocky starts the final drafts of specialized rooms are being implemented in the overall level design. The Lab, The Bridge, and The Biodome are some of the varied environments the player comes across during their quest to save the doomed ship. Also seen are some attractive shots of our main protagonist

Monday, November 11, 2013

Thank to CrazyBump, I don't need to do a lot of the shading and bumping by myself.

That's why I'm trying to add OCC map to the texture and hope that it would make the result more polished.

OCC map makes everything looks more dirty, when doing modular level building , dirty is good, because you can hide seam this way.

The way I handle seam is by purposefully leaving it black. See the black line runs across the picture? There is a seam and no matter anything wrong with the game engine, this seam will blend in beautifully.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Today we presented our week 7 scrum. Overall feedback was positive and we've made some great progress. Things we need to work on over the next few weeks are implementing sound effects, getting animations in, and texturing the world and objects.

A lot of players seemed to be confused about what exactly the generator was, and they had trouble figuring out what to do once getting out of the intro room.

We also need to figure out a way to convey to the player that the monster should not be shot, and can't be killed. While most people figured this out on their own, most players attacked it first.

We also need to work on the alien's vision distance. Right now, in the dark, he can see you from very far away. Originally, we wanted the monster to be pretty blind in the pitch black parts of the game, and it would only find you if it bumped into you in the dark. However, he'd have no problem seeing you from a distance if you were standing in light.